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Improving sleep

vincelwt.com

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Re: Improving sleep

#91

Post by UncleMeat »

bookaway wrote: post #75
formvoltron wrote: post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Coffee leads to dehydration. Drink several liters of water during the day and some people may be able to continue with morning coffee consumption. This is a myth. Coffee has water in it. Just drink enough water from all sources.

If it is a myth, it is a very widespread stubbornly persistent myth. If you have links to scientific sources debunking it as a myth that would much appreciated. I came across it most recently in Tom Brady's athletic health book [0]. If I remember correctly, he states that you should drink double the amount of coffee consumed to offset the dehydration effects of coffee. This is simply to emphasize the ubiquitous natur…

It does not surprise me even one bit that a professional athlete's book on health and nutrition contains health and nutrition myths, especially given other stuff that he has promoted.

Re: Improving sleep

#92

Post by nicbou »

tailspin2019 wrote: post #82

My main takeaway from this was not actually from the posted article, but from this person's technique of publishing (unfinished?) draft articles on their blog [0] with a prefix of "[draft]". For someone who struggles to finish blog articles, this seems to be a stroke of genius. I might have to try it. I can't help thinking that once you've published something, the impetus to complete or polish it may be higher too. […

You might like the concept of digital gardens. Refining posts over time is part of the idea.

https://maggieappleton.com/garden-history

Re: Improving sleep

#93

Post by the-dude »

bookaway wrote: post #75
formvoltron wrote: post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Coffee leads to dehydration. Drink several liters of water during the day and some people may be able to continue with morning coffee consumption. This is a myth. Coffee has water in it. Just drink enough water from all sources.

If it is a myth, it is a very widespread stubbornly persistent myth. If you have links to scientific sources debunking it as a myth that would much appreciated. I came across it most recently in Tom Brady's athletic health book [0]. If I remember correctly, he states that you should drink double the amount of coffee consumed to offset the dehydration effects of coffee. This is simply to emphasize the ubiquitous natur…

Do you have links to scientific sources acknowledging it?

Re: Improving sleep

#94

Post by karmakaze »

formvoltron wrote: post #64
Dowwie wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Coffee leads to dehydration. Drink several liters of water during the day and some people may be able to continue with morning coffee consumption.

> Coffee leads to dehydration. Drink several liters of water during the day and some people may be able to continue with morning coffee consumption. This is a myth. Coffee has water in it. Just drink enough water from all sources.

I participated in a time tracking exercise and I found that like-clockwork, without fail, I would urinate 1 hour after a cup of coffee at the office. On the way back from the bathroom, I'd get myself another cup of coffee. I had no idea I was having 5 or more cups of coffee every day.

I later tried to cut down or reduce my coffee intake. Most times I always resumed from a combination of missing the enjoyment/routine, flavour, and ability to focus. I finally at least cut out espresso shots, and mostly have a green tea in the morning and a coffee in the afternoon, and sometimes an (orange pekoe/earl gray) tea or a decaf coffee in the early evening.

Re: Improving sleep

#95

Post by wink »

jonifico wrote: post #85
wink wrote: post #81

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You do realize that a twitter thread is about as useful to many people as posting an internal Facebook link these days? To my surprise I can see the post and not a login window as most days, but there are no replies.

Twitter or FB are not the best channel, but it's not easy to gain traction in any medium without a well stablished community, haven't tried other social networks yet, which one do you think could be better ?

Can't help you, in this age of current flux I'm just pointing out that what had worked easily for 10+ years is now not so great, and if you are still an active logged-in Twitter user you might not notice. (Sorry for the aside, but I clicked and would have read it, but actually can't anymore after closing my account.)

Re: Improving sleep

#96

Post by taylodl »

FirmwareBurner wrote: post #4

Biggest improvement to sleep quality I had was giving up caffeine, which isn't mentioned in this article. I'm inclined to bet, most people in the west who self report suffering form poor sleep, can narrow it down to caffeine over-consumption, since it leads you slowly to this march of death burning the candle at both ends where you drink coffee to compensate for poor sleep and you sleep poorly because of too much caf…

I didn't have to go this far. No caffeine after 11 a.m. dramatically improved my sleep. I also limit myself to 2 cups of coffee per day.

Re: Improving sleep

#97

Post by theandrewbailey »

> It's just a bit hard to book a night at a clinic 3 mo in the future when I don't know in which country I'll be then.

That might be the most first-world problem I've ever come across. Maybe frequent travel impacts sleep?

Re: Improving sleep

#98

Post by pwpw »

formvoltron wrote: post #64
Dowwie wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Coffee leads to dehydration. Drink several liters of water during the day and some people may be able to continue with morning coffee consumption.

> Coffee leads to dehydration. Drink several liters of water during the day and some people may be able to continue with morning coffee consumption. This is a myth. Coffee has water in it. Just drink enough water from all sources.

It’s a shame this is downvoted on HN of all places. I have seen various research that suggests both caffeine (in coffee & tea) and even alcohol (in lighter beers) do not dehydrate. I’ll stick with caffeine since that’s the topic.

The primary study that spread the idea that caffeine dehydrates is from a 1928 study with a sample size of three men[0]. It may very well be that caffeine does dehydrate, but I have yet to see overwhelmingly conclusive evidence to make such a claim as matter of fact. For now, I believe it’s safer to err on the side of moderate and regular caffeine consumption not causing dehydration to a perceptible level. This could of course be entirely incorrect, but I haven’t come across research that has convinced me otherwise so far. My understanding is the reason a cup of coffee (or tea’ does not dehydrate the consumer is because it is almost entirely water.

I think an important frying to remember is that science is a field of research and discovery, so we should try to avoid arriving at conclusions and refusing to accept differing opinions. Look at how we treated Ignaz Semmelweis for an extreme example of that type of fallacy.

[0] https://jpet.aspetjournals.org/content/33/2/167

More studies:

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3886980/

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/11022872/

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/21450118/

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/9194998

http://www.plosone.org/article/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjourna...

Re: Improving sleep

#99

Post by Glench »

I'm happy the author was so thorough on the physical attempts at reducing their insomnia! Since they seemed to have a lot of the physical figured out, my curiosity immediately goes to the mental. What is the quality of their minds when they wake up in the middle of the night? Do they have racing thoughts or perseverate on things?

Also, this is a classic Vata disorder in ayurveda. An ayurvedic practitioner should be able help narrow down options without all the trial and error.

Re: Improving sleep

#100

Post by sod »

vincelt wrote: post #76
sod wrote: post #56

Nice list. I second having better sleep with white/brown noise. Be careful with in ears though. Don't wanna catch an infection. Also rolling over one ear piece may wake you up again, sabotaging the sleep. I may add, as it's not mentioned in the article: co2. My 55m^2 flat barely stays below critical co2 levels without ventilation for a 7 hour sleep. So keeping all doors open is crucial and/or a window slightly open o…

Thanks, never thought about that, I'll sometimes wake up in the middle of the night with a sort of claustrophobic feeling and need to take a deep breath when there is no ventilation or windows open. Girlfriend always complain that I must leave everything open because of that. Do you use a Co2 meter to monitor?

Yeah, I bought two co2 meters - one for each room - after a hackernews thread about losing cognitive function with rising levels. So I only bought them to improve work. Really wanted to know how often and long I have to open the windows.

Often I closed the doors to sleep as the noise from neighbors woke me up sometimes. Was completely dumbfounded to wake up to >2000 ppm co2 in my bedroom. And my meter doesn't even go much further as anything above 2k is considered "get fresh air now". Now I only close the door to the bathroom and keep everything else open.

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